Douglas Luiz: Man City's wildcard Rodri replacement?

Tom Weber

30 Nov 2024 15:01 CST
4 min read

Douglas Luiz, Juventus, 2024/25 — © IMAGO

Douglas Luiz is enduring a difficult time at Juventus and is already looking for a way out, according to Italian media.

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The Brazilian has become a hotly debated player in Turin and beyond. Luiz was signed by Juventus in the summer as part of a strange deal that saw the Bianconeri part with €50 million and two players to help Aston Villa balance the books.

The Premier League side needed to raise funds and agreed to let their star midfielder depart for about half of what they had demanded in the January window. The transfer has so far not worked out for any of the players involved.

Samuel Iling-Junior and Enzo Barrenechea were immediately sent out on loan by Aston Villa, while Luiz has endured a tough time in Serie A. The 26-year-old did not leave a particularly positive impression in pre-season and failed to grasp the few opportunities he was given by coach Thiago Motta.

He gave away penalties in back-to-back games against Leipzig and Cagliari and soon thereafter suffered an injury that has now kept him out for over a month. According to Gazzetta dello Sport, Juventus are open to a January transfer and the player is 'looking for a club.'

An unexpected Rodri replacement?

The potential availability of Luiz will have put Premier League sides on red alert given that he was one of the best midfielders in the division prior to his departure for Turin.

One club definitely in the market for a midfielder are Man City. Rodri is out for the season and the Cityzens are scouring the market for potential January reinforcements.

On the face of it, Luiz does not seem a like-for-like replacement for the Ballon d'Or winner and, after all, that is the kind of player City are targeting. Rodri is the glue that held Pep Guardiola's side together and the Premier League champions want another player just like that.

Despite this, Luiz could actually be a wildcard Rodri replacement should other targets prove unattainable, such as Martin Zubimendi who has always been reluctant to leave boyhood club Real Sociedad.

Luiz is not a defensive midfielder in the traditional sense, but neither is Rodri in Guardiola's system. City push up so high during games to squeeze the opposition that the Spaniard regularly finds himself in and around the opposition box similar to Luiz.

The Brazilian has experience in every conceivable midfield role and, of course, he was previously on the books at City but never played a competitive match due to work permit issues, which obviously won't be a problem anymore.

The Athletic's JJ Bull has pointed out an interesting bit of information regarding City's fragility without Rodri: the Spaniard is the only player in the side who seems capable of fouling, thereby stopping the counter-attacks that the team is so vulnerable to.

In recent years, Rodri has, by quite some distance, carried out the most fouls of any Man City player and if we look at the Premier League statistics for last season, we see that Luiz actually committed more fouls for Villa (51 - the 10th most in the league) than Rodri (41).

Luiz is a much more mobile player than Mateo Kovacic and Ilkay Gundogan and more robust and tenacious than Rico Lewis and Matheus Nunes, potentially making him a more suitable replacement for Rodri than he would seem at first glance.

Data analytics firm SciSports seems to agree as they give Luiz a good Club Fit rating of 78 for Man City, which is a better score than his current side Juventus and ex-club Aston Villa boast. There is a compelling case to be made that Luiz, when fit, could be a viable Rodri replacement.

Read more about: Serie A, Premier League, Juventus, Man City, Douglas Luiz, Rodri